i drew my friends shoe

Here's a couple of drawings that I made back in the day. When my eyes could see better.

The top one was made with a ballpoint pen and the bottom one with colour pencil.

I'm pretty proud of both of these actually.

There's a little collection of my shoe drawings (if you'd like to peruse) HERE.

all my colours turn to clouds

I've been doing a little design work for a wool/knitting/crocheting centre recently. It took a few attempts to come up with a design that both the client and I were happy with and agreed on. This was one of the earlier attempts and the original is up for sale HERE. yes, I really really need a new phone (see last blog post).

fame is but a fruit tree

Fame is but a fruit tree. Isn't that a great line by the beautiful Nick Drake? I'd like to have known him.

Anyway, here's another of the backdrops I am illustrating for the Buxton Festival's production of James and the Giant Peach. I'm pretty happy with this one and though I might still add a little background I also liked it against the white.

Right, I'm off to do some more drawing whilst day dreaming about knowing Nick Drake. Sounds like a perfect afternoon. If only I didn't have to go to work. Ah well, you can't have it all.

Lots more on it's way this week.

a stranger to my eyes

This is a little taster. A little trailer, if you will, for a new project I've been desperate to get up and running for some time. Actually, it's not necessarily new; it's been simmering for a year or so now. I like a bit of simmering. Time for all those flavours to really come out. I hope you'll return for the opening of the envelope.

Plus, a big thanks for all the comments. adds, likes and favourites in response to yesterday's post. Touched is not the word.

look up and you'll see me

Clearly, I haven't thought the idea for this new book through. Because this is the space I'm left to work with on the next page.....

Now what the bloody hell do I do with that? Hmmmm.

a two way street

This was a nice little surprise in my mail box today. I sold this drawing earlier in the year. It was destined for a little girl's bedroom wall on the other side of the world to me. How great does it look all mounted and framed? I would never have considered such vibrant colours or patterned mounts ('matts' in the US?). I probably would have gone with white. These photos make me totally reconsider how I'll frame my drawings in the future. I think it looks fabulous.

Do you have any of photos of my drawings in your homes? I'd love to gather some together for a future post.

Thanks, Oli, for these lovely pics.

and again and again and again

'have you tidied that room yet?'
'er...'

Remember THIS POST? That was a lot of fun.
I must do something similar soon.

When I made this pair of drawings I was thinking back to being a kid, and being told to tidy the room. I would literally just shove everything behind the sofa and feel that that was a job well done.

Also, you know that infamous little cat toy in the bottom right hand corner of the top drawing? Yeah? Well, can you spot it in the drawing below?

'...yeah, it's done.'

they're all wasted

A new oldie up for sale on Etsy. Take a look HERE.

It seems crazy that I made this drawing four years ago. I remember drawing it so vividly. I remember I was watching The Who at Glastonbury and wishing I was there. I love looking at a drawing and seeing all those memories.

in between tonight and my tomorrows

A few posts ago I told you about how I'd swapped the childish purse I'd been carrying around for the ever so grown up owl purse on the left. The childish purse in question was the cat one on the right. When my friend saw my new purse she said "so now you've had an owl and a pussycat". Then we both looked at each other and said "now, THAT would be a good drawing".

I don't know if it's any good, but I do know that these pair are the most delicious of subjects to draw. I love all the patterns and textures. And, I'm not sure that I've finished with them yet.

why don't you come over to my house?

This is the first time in ages that I have not had some kind of deadline looming on the horizon. And, after the stress of some of those deadlines I cannot believe I'm actually going to complain about that - but I am. I'm suddenly feeling so restless. I want something to work toward. Some project. I don't know what sort of project but I'll figure it out. I'll make something happen.

In the meantime, here's a new drawing. A few months ago my coin purse fell apart and I temporarily replaced it with an old purse that had belonged to my niece - when she was about five. It was ridiculously childish purse for 'a lady of a certain age' so, I decided I must replace it and went out to buy a new one. And, yep, you've guessed it; I came home with this much more grown up cloth owl.

This little guy is available for sale (the original drawing, not the purse) HERE.

wish i knew you well

I was going to say that this is the finished version of the drawing I posted part of a little while back. But now looking at it on the screen I think it could do with more shading; a little sepia to give it an antique feel. That's how I had seen it in my head before I began. Also, I always intended adding a handle because it is supposed to be a drawer full of souvenirs. Or, the handle could have made it look like a suitcase. And, I love that ambiguity.

I'm often asked how long my drawings take. Well, at a guess, this one took a mere fifty hours. To appreciate the obsessive attention to detail click on the drawing and stick your conk in. Please do; FIFTY chuffing hours.

Oh dear, it seems that some of you have having trouble enlarging this image. I'll try to fix it, until then you can see the bigger version HERE.

i'm hanging on the wire

I'm so tired these days. I'm exhausted and need my bed as I type this. I just cannot keep up with everything I have to do. When I started this blog I guess I just wanted to start drawing again. Then some time went by and I realised that I might just have some skill and, who knows, I could actually turn my hobby into work. Now I'm at the stage where I can't keep up with it all. I know that all small businesses go through this transitional stage and this is where they can flourish or, for want of a better phrase, go tits up.

I just wasn't expecting to get to a stage where I hardly have the time to draw. These are two pages from my new Moleskine project; the airmail/penpal/Scandinavian themed one. I managed to sneak an evenings drawing in earlier in the week. At this rate this book will be finished in 2036.

Any advice?

makes me feel i'm from another world

Not content with just drawing on air mail envelopes I've actually take to drawing the little buggers too. I was going to take this opportunity to have a right old rant about the Royal Mail. I am seriously fecked off with them right now. There's been a much higher percentage of people not getting their mail from me this time round. Specifically the stuff I posted before Christmas. I'm not sure how they can justify this. Or how they expect small businesses, in a difficult time, to soak up the extra costs of resending orders. Plus, when I think of all the time I've put into getting this stuff out it just makes me furious. And, that's not the half of it. It's, perhaps, not so bad when you actually have the stuff to resend but when an original drawing goes missing then that really hurts. To anyone who has not yet received their order (if you ordered over a couple of weeks ago that is) then please get in touch and I'll put it right. Big apologies, once again. So, I'll save that rant for another time. I still haven't started the tax returns.

i heard it in the wind last night

Oh well, I didn't get around to a new Christmas drawing this year, so the sprouts are getting another airing. For those of you from outside of the UK who might be wondering why sprouts, well, I'll tell you why. In the UK it is the law that on Christmas day you must have Brussel sprouts. Honestly. You can be locked up unless you have at least one on your plate. And nobody wants that.

Hope you all a have a wonderful Christmas (assuming you celebrate it). Thanks for all the visits, follows and comments. They are much appreciated. I'll be back with loads more drawings very soon.

And, once again, a big thanks to those of you who have bought my drawings, zines and prints. You keep the wolf from my door.

Merry Christmas everybody.

i've been whistling down the street

It wasn't until the day I was leaving Clermont Ferrand that I realised that I hadn't bought any souvenirs of the trip. We'd been so busy at the exhibition that I'd forgotten - which is ironic as I was there to exhibit my travel sketchbook that was themed 'souvenirs of my travels'. So on our final day we had an hour before we had to be the airport to find some souvenirs.

Luckily my stadar (a kind of radar, or gaydar, that detects stationery outlets in the vicinity), which had been going off for the whole trip, pointed me in the direction of a great big stationers close to our hotel. Now, for me, stationery plus souvenirs ticks so many boxes I couldn't have been happier.

So, here are my souvenirs of Clermont Ferrand; a half blue and half red pencil, two stencil maps of France and a ruler. Mission accomplished.

I'm not so happy with the blue and red drawing, above. No doubt I'll mess around with that some more in the future.

Of course, there are also all of the sugar packets, napkins, tram tickets, receipts, bills and business cards I also collected during the trip, but hey that's another drawing. Or six.

These drawing are a part of my aforementioned souvenir themed sketchbook. You can see the rest of the series HERE.

all i wanna do

Ooooh. 'Citing stuff. The book I recently (ish) illustrated arrived at my little home today. It's a great feeling to finally hold it. It's a little book, little but cute. I know I keep on repeating myself, but for those who don't know, it's by Jane Austen. I'll tell you more, and add some photos, in the next post. Right now, I'm so excited I just wanted to share this news with you.

This is one of my favourite drawings. It also graces the cover. This scan isn't so great. In the original you can see every hole that the needle made in the material. Yes, I actually drew every tiny hole. Nothing obsessive about that, I'm sure you'll agree.

say hello wave goodbye

Well, hello dolly. Again.

Yes, there certainly seems to be a theme running through my work at the moment. The drawing, above, was another that I really enjoyed doing. I love having so many different textures to tackle, and each of the dolls had a texture and character of it's own. I've finished with the theme, for now, though. I'm all dolled out.

before the years flew by

Here's a spread from my travel Moleskine. I know. I know what you are thinking. You don't spell recieved like that.

I really enjoyed this drawing. I love the challenge of trying to master a new texture with a few pens and pencils. I like to think I got it, although this version doesn't do it much justice. It looks much better on Flickr, HERE.

seems i've got to have a change of scene

A couple more spreads from my travel themed Moleskine. It's a tale of two drawings. A game of two halves. Or something like that. The drawing above is of some bouquet garni I bought in Lyon. Now, I know some twigs and sticks wrapped in leaves isn't going to float every bodies boat, but it does mine.

I enjoyed this drawing, loved the subject, colours and the textures and I like to think it shows.

In contrast, the sea anemones, below, turned out to be quite the opposite. Although, the subject is very beautiful I couldn't get a handle on it. It really should have been lovely - gorgeous shapes, amazing textures, patterns and colours - but I just couldn't make it work. I end up getting so frustrated when I cannot achieve on paper what I see in my head. I didn't enjoy this one, at all.

And, I think that shows too.

Anyway, enough moaning. You can see the rest of my travel moleskine HERE.

she's in my head

So, as I said, some brand spanking new drawings from my travel Moleskine. Ah, I just love those sketch books so much. That beautiful smooth cream paper. Plus, of course, it's a heavyweight paper which means it can just about withstand all my obsessive cross hatching. I don't think there is anyway you can improve the Moleskine product - although I'd love them to add a bigger size paper size, and perhaps a nice bright white paper to their range. Not that I'm complaining. I just love these books.

I am now feeling determined to finish this travel themed Moley. Maybe by the end of the year. I know it might not sound like the most ambitious ambition (?) in the world, but these spreads do take hours - and sometimes I'm talking about double figures. Not that I'm complaining. I just love to draw, so I'm going to go hell for leather in this sketchbook. Time permitting, of course.

Anyway, to celebrate my return to the travel Moleskine I've put a sale on the zine that I've produced from this book. It contains nine drawings all with a travel theme. Buy it now by visiting my little shop HERE.

Cheers, my dears. And, in case you are interested the travel Molsekine set (so far) is HERE.